Karavanserai by Jocelyn Fullerton for Cult of Scent 2015 + DISCOUNT CODE

January 6, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Portia

Hey there Indie Frag Lovers,

My mate Jocelyn is the perfumer at Cult of Scent. She is a fast talking, fun and passionate perfumer whose work is definitely Indie and really, really good. She was lauded by no less than Luca Turin in 2015 and we have written about others in the range here on APJ before. Here are links to those: Fire Amber Baby, Sweet Libertine, Something Beautiful and Hedonist.

So it was with real sadness that I read of the discontinuation of one of her best sellers Karavanserai……

From Jocelyn (edited): Just a heads-up folks. I am discontinuing Karavanserai. There is about 200mL left, then that’s it. I love it, but the Angelica root & Cedrat oils are hard to get good reliable stocks of, so it’s time to let it go.
If you’ve been wanting to buy this dry herbaceous citrus cologne, now is your chance.
To sweeten the deal, I am extending the DISCOUNT CODE APJ10 till the end of this month.

Karavanserai by Cult of Scent 2015

Karavanserai by Jocelyn Fullerton

Fragrantica

Cult Of Scent gives these featured accords:
Cedrat, Vetiver, Angelica, Bulgarian rose otto, Frankincense, Cedarwood

So, how does Karavanserai smell? Imagine a cologne fragrance based around rose. I know, it’s simple but revolutionary. Well, it’s not merely rose. It’s mainly citrus with a lovely slightly salted dry grass that last and lasts. The rose seems to be more about the rosewood and sharp green rose flower than the usual fruity or honeyed variations of the theme.

Karavanserai is not a bit what I’d expect from something of that name. In my mind I expect a spicy frankincense blend full of hot wind and dry, straggly shrubbery. Maybe some camel or goat and the smell of horses and their tack. Interestingly the Persian word means the inn or stop where travellers could rest and recover from the day’s journey, not the caravan itself.

Wikipedia

Lasting power is excellent with the first hour having big sillage that softens off considerably for the rest of the ride. By 5 hours I can still smell the remnants and they still have a woody citrus wash about them. Very, very nice.

Nevertheless it is gorgeous and I’ve used quite a lot of my 8ml from my VAGABONDS CHOICE Travel Set.

Don’t forget the DISCOUNT CODE: APJ10 it works on the whole site till the end of January.

What would you expect to be the notes for something called Karavanserai?
Portia xx

1001 Ouds by Camille Goutal + Isabelle Doyen for Annick Goutal Les Absolus 2015

January 5, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Portia

Hey there APJ Crew,

So many oudhs on sale. I love Annick Goutal and wanted to see how the house would treat oudh. Luckily Surrender To Chance has samples because we can’t get these to look at in Australia. Here’s my experience.

1001 Ouds by Annick Goutal Les Absolus 2015

1001 Ouds by Camille Goutal + Isabelle Doyen

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Agarwood (oud), papyrus
Heart: Agarwood (oud), rose, pimento
Base: Agarwood (oud), birch, guaiac wood, myrhh

Ouds? Well kind of. It’s clearly a synthetic rendering of the oudh experience. There is plenty of the band aid, rubber tyres and eucalyptus hiding inside but not so much of the barnyard. If you are an oudh aficionado then you may think 1001 Ouds is a poor cashgrab by Annick Goutal to add the middle Eastern market and jump on the oud bandwagon. Maybe that’s true BUT if you don’t really like oudh in its heavier incarnations this could very easily be a good gateway oudh. While showing some of the less confronting facets of the accord it is far less challenging. Here we have a warm, comforting fragrance that nods to the Middle East from a very comfy recliner with a large drink.

PDI

The opening does have a sweet dry grass accord nestling softly into the oudh and I like that the opening lasts long minutes before we see any sign of the rose making it’s appearance. When it does come rose is not treated in the modern Montale rose/oudh style. Here it is completely backup, a pretty filigree to add luster and I find it very difficult to even notice the pimento, which is a shame because I was interested.

The birch is clean in the beginning and doesn’t feel like it’s painting tar onto the back of your throat and sinuses until well into dry-down. It is happily offset by the myrrh but also smells to me like there might be some vanilla holding the bottom half of the fragrance together.

I think 1001 Ouds is definitely an oudh for people who don’t like oudh. Wearable even to work if you are lucky enough to be able to go fragranced. I think it’s also a very nice date frag and will try it out at the movies tonight with Jin…….

PDI

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and ScentBound
FragranceNet have a few Testers left at AUD$120/75 after Coupon
Surrender To Chance has samples from $4.50/.05ml

Did you try this when it was released?
Portia xx

Moving: Vienna To Rotterdam 2016

January 4, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Sandra

Happy New Year APJ! May 2017 bring peace, love and joy to our lives.

Let me just come right out and say it. Moving is terrible. Leaving the comfort of my flat and all the luxuries of the known has been the most challenging aspect. Please do not take this post as a complaint, rather as a funny side to the moving experience.

Moving: Vienna To Rotterdam 2016

The bandaid has been ripped off and we landed safely in Rotterdam. The movers got us into the house and then promptly abandoned us at 2 pm stating that they did not want to unpack all the boxes because there was not enough flat surface to place the items on! WTF?! Seriously – we have four floors!!! Too emotionally spent to argue with them, we let them go home. Now, imagine us climbing, sometimes on all fours, the three crazy steep stairs with boxes – no stairmaster is needed. We have it in the house and no health club membership will be necessary.

One major challenge with which we are faced is figuring out what foods are safe for my allergic son. To give you an example – the first night in Rotterdam we mistakenly thought that a sushi restaurant would be safe. The waitress tried telling us to leave because she could not handle my request. All I wanted to know is why there was egg in an avocado maki! The manager came and told me it was because all the sushi has mayonnaise. Really?! I kindly requested that he makes the maki without the mayo and voila we have safe food! So, it will take us several weeks to get our bearings and figure out which grocery stores have the right foods for us and which restaurants we can visit.

On another note, I know that I am short – but I feel positively elflike here. Both men and women tower over me! We needed to buy a step stool to actually climb into the bath tub – my legs are just not that long. My husband placed one step stool on every floor as there are even light switches I cannot reach on tippytoe. Don’t even get me started on the cupboard space in the kitchen – I don’t remember what I placed up top and cannot even see all the way up there from the ground.

With all the stress and now culture shock setting in, I have two favourite perfumes giving me the much needed comfort and hugs.

Knowing how stressful this would be, I decided several weeks before the move that for the five or six days that it would take to pack, move, stay in a hotel and then move into the house I would be fragrance free.

Guerlain

Once unpacked, I spritzed Shalimar EdP lavishly and was in scented heaven. It has grounded me when I found myself wanting to whimper in a corner.

Guerlain

At night I require an extra dose of sugar and reach for Spiriteuse Double Vanille which sends me off to dreamland with its wonderful boozy vanilla cloud.

All in all, I am excited about the adventure and am looking forward to discovering new places and meeting new people. The Dutch are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. People smile and are willing to help us and most go out of their way when we explain that we are newly implanted foreigners in their country.

Here are a few pictures of the last night in Vienna and then my first impressions living in this vibrant city. If you are interested, you can follow my Instagram (vienna_living) to catch a glimpse of my latest discoveries.

Mystery Fragrance NYE 2016/7

January 3, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 91 Comments

Robert Herrmann

Hello. my name is Robert and I’m a fragaholic……

I started writing this in response to something that happened to me on New Year’s Eve day. I suspect it’s happened to all of us. I was working in my office (a.k.a. The perfumed desk from hell) and decided to finish off a sample vial that was sitting next to my right arm. I applied the perfume, and threw the vial in the trash can and BOOM! Suddenly I was facing seeing the old year out wearing something truly spectacular! But I had NO idea what the hell it was 😡 !!

Mystery Fragrance NYE 2016/7

Because as soon as I applied the remainder of the perfume I was Immediately surrounded by the most GORGEOUS scent, floral, animalic, deep, intense. Just stunning. My first thought was “Wait…. Do I have a bottle of this marvel? And if not, how fast can I order one???”

So I went searching through the trash (of course it was at the very bottom), found the vial only to realize to my horror that the vial was unmarked. U.N.M.A.R.K.E.D. !!!! wtf?? I LERRRRVE this perfume, I MUST own it, it might be my “precioussssss….”

I scoured my desk for a clue.
I searched UNDER the desk for a missing tag.
I sneezed my way through monumental dust bunnies.
I TORE THE FREAKING HOUSE APART…. but no such luck.

I then started noticing the god-awful pile up of perfume on my desk. And on the table next to my easy chair. And the TWO full boxes of samples awaiting sniffing since 2014!!! Suddenly I realized that my rabbit hole was a “perfumeaggedon” waiting to happen. It was clearly out of control.

Now I know for a fact that Ikea and Target have a multitude of storage options available to me if I could just figure out which was best. More shelves? Possibly. A wine cooler for perfume bottles? Sounds a bit too intense. Chic and cunning little boxes to HIDE the mess? Oh, you mean like I already have? Le sigh….. Only time will tell, hopefully the next few weeks…. now if I could just start making that damned perfume spreadsheet I’ve been thinking of for the last few years….

My name is Robert and I am a fragoholic.

Are your samples like this?? Here’s where I take a stand. Let’s do a draw for yet ANOTHER mystery sample…….

Mystery Fragrance GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Mystery Fragrance from Robert’s collection
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us some effective perfume and sample storage ideas, or a sample you tried recently that you swooned for

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 5th January 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 11th January 2017 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit

Last Sydney Sniffy Get Together 2016

January 2, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Portia

Hi there crew.

On the 30th December 2016 a small crew of fragrance/fragrant enthusiasts got together to troll the Sydney City department store David Jones. Then we headed down the road to extremely Ra Cha Cha hotel and watering hole QT Sydney at 49 Market St for nibbles and beverages. It was a fun, frolicsome crew with loads of smiles and laughs, spritzing, bitching and fabulous repartee. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and got to spend some quality time with people I’d only ever spent skim time with.

Last Sydney Sniffy Get Together 2016

Normally we would fit in more than one fragrant store but on this particular day David Jones had enough to keep our noses and credit cards working hard for about 2 hours before we all catwalk down to drinks.

Here is a small snapshot of our afternoon.

Here are TinaG, Jocelyn Fullerton of Cult Of Scent and Angela.

With the handsome Simon

Kerri & Gina

Angela, Gina & Chairman Meow

Angela, Gina, TinaG, Chairman Meow, Kerri

At QT Sydney

Maybe you should get together with some like minded frag heads in 2017. It’s amazing how much fun we all have together.
Portia xx

Amora EdP GIVEAWAY WINNER

January 2, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

SHIT!! Totally forgot this APJ,

Let’s see who won,
Portia xxx

Amora EdP GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Hensley Perfumes gives these featured accords:
Stone fruit, mixed berries, rose absolute, blonde tobacco, sweet resins, musk complex, ambergris

Hendley Perfumes has $18/9ml + Samples

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 9ml Amora EdP Travel Spray
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 29th December 2016 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners was chosen by random.org

BBMc

The winners will have till Wednesday 4th January 2017 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit

Apollo Hyacinth by Alberto Morillas for Eric Buterbaugh Florals 2015

January 1, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Portia

Hey fumes,

I wrote about Apollo Hyacinth back in 2015. It has remained in my head and on my To Buy List since, so recently I bought another 3ml decant to see if I’ll go through it. My major concern, and why I haven’t gone FB on this green beauty is the bottle. I really love how it looks and think it’s perfectly gorgeous but if I had to decant it out to wear I think it would just not ever get used. Yes, I know how petty that sounds but let’s be honest here. If I have 17 green fragrances to choose from and 3 of them need to be decanted out to be worn then you can be bloody certain that those three will end up being totally ignored while I spritz some CHANEL No 19, Giverny In Bloom, Silences or Niki de Saint Phalle.

Apollo Hyacinth by Eric Buterbaugh Florals 2015

Apollo Hyacinth by Alberto Morillas

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, pear, galbanum
Heart: Hyacinth, lily of the valley, angelica
Base: Haitian vetiver, oakmoss, cedar

Candied pear, or pear with sugar on top, galbanum and greenery. Imagine a stinking hot day and you’re walking through the shaded bushland eating a pear and drinking pear fizzy soda. That’s how Apollo Hyacinth opens for me. Elegant, spacious and yet friendly. This is no austere No 19 or arctic Giverny in Bloom, no, this is welcoming green. Even the angelica has a sweetness to it and I’m not sure how it has happened but it’s so different that I am surprised every wear. About an hour or so in I smell the soft, drippy, green stalk of cutting flowers from bulbs as plain as day. Also the LotV makes an appearance around this time but not as a lead player.

Because I’m wearing Apollo Hyacinth today in 35C heat my own sweat has added an extraordinary saltiness that I have never noticed before that skews the whole fragrance a little towards the salty white floral. Very interesting.

Lasting power is excellent, though after 4 hours you have to be very close to notice.

I’m thinking I will buy the Discovery Kit at $315 with 8 x 10ml of the whole range except the new one. They are all spritzers and come with a Travel Case.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Australian Perfume Junkies
Eric Buterbaugh Florals has EdP $295/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $5/.5ml

Would you be bothered decanting?
Portia xx

Stash SJP by Laurent Le Gurney + Clement Gavarry for Sarah Jessica Parker 2016

December 30, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey there Fragrance Family,

There is usually a buzz around any Sarah Jessica Parker release. Her story told by Chandler Burr in his Frag-Umentary caused me to fall even more in love with the actress and now 4 of her fragrances are in my collection. Now if you’ve read the story you’ll know that SJP had a 3 fragrance layering daily routine that she really wanted to emulate in her first fragrance but Coty wouldn’t let her so they made Lovely.

Book Depository $13

To be perfectly honest I was not expecting much from this new release because over the last few scents I have noticed a definite diminution in the SJP brands artistic merit and presentation. This though is her first departure from the Coty brand and moving across to Ulta in the USA (info from Colgnoisseur). So it was with mildly nervous steps, even though it had been getting raves all round, I made my way to Chemist Warehouse in Parramatta to check it out.

Stash SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker 2016

Stash SJP by Laurent Le Gurney + Clement Gavarry

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Grapefruit zest, Black pepper, Sage
Heart: Atlas cedar, Patchouli, Ginger lily, Pistachio
Base: Frankincense, Massoia wood, Vetiver, Musk

Straight into black pepper that has it’s dryness cut through with some sweetness that I place as mildly citrus and does not feel as outrageous as grapefruit, maybe the green sage and spicy ginger are giving it a broader appeal. Woods, yes plenty. Pistachio? Um nope, not yet. I have respritzed after 5 minutes and interestingly the sage is the most prominent top not before the pepper comes through and then we go smooth. The whole fragrance smooths out beautifully. Still very noticeable but calmer and a sweet, non hippy patchouli tangos with the ginger and the herbs.

WikiCommons

Then I become anosmic to Stash, it disappears for me. I know I’m still fragrant because Jin says I still have a heavy perfume but I can smell almost nothing. A ghost of Stash, a faint woody nothing that lingers softly. BUM. OK, so that’s not 100% accurate, if I go do something like make a coffee or take the dogs for a walk I do get flashes of fragrance. Little huffs of something very nice, dry, a little bit like a dry sauna but not.

Stash smells like the woodsy, scratchy, peppered “niche” that annoys Val but softer and more lighthearted. It’s easier, quite masculine but will be gorgeous on the girls who are unafraid of scentorially standing out.

Interestingly, when I put my top back on to walk the dogs first thing in the morning all I can smell is an oily vetiver and incense. Really good.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Colgnoisseur
Chemist Warehouse has $29/30ml

PERFECT fragrant gift for either sex, wearable, comfortable and really, really good.
Will you be wearing STASH?
Portia xxx

Eau de Sud by Annick Goutal 1996

December 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fragrance Family,

Few niche houses have the success or longevity of Annick Goutal. Writing about Nuit Etoilee and wearing it over the Christmas season reminded me to grab out the rest of my Annick Goutal collection. I’ve whittled it down to the favourite few, maybe 6 FBs and some large decants. Here’s one of my oft worn faves.

Eau de Sud by Annick Goutal 1996

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, basil, grapefruit, bergamot
Heart: Mint, lime, lemon verbena, jasmine
Base: Vetiver, patchouli, oakmoss

Even though the citrus in Eau de Sud is a little sticky it still feels cooling in the heat of Sydney summer. I love it too as a summer reminder in the dead of winter so even if you Northern Hemisphere peeps feel like a spritz it will be perfect. So much citrus in the opening and there is a soft minty pop to keep it refreshing. Add to that a salty zing like eating oranges after swimming in salt water or a Margarita. My nose smells creaminess and I am unsure of the origin, maybe the jasmine adds a creamy note? Anyway, I get a balmy smoothness that equates to creamy in my brain, it’s really galbanum-esque. If I give myself a second spritz after about 20 minutes the basil is quite noticeable compared to the original application.

Cavendish & Harvey

Eau de Sud reminds me of this hard lollies that used to come in a tin with loads of super fine white sugar powder around them, do you remember? They were deliciously sweet with recreations of fruits but had only the merest tenuous connection to fruit, more of a fruit allusion. Here the fruits are more nameable but still that sweetness and mild sharpness is completely here. We used to suck them on planes to stop our ears popping and Mum would use them to give us a sugar hit if we looked like we were flagging and needed to be alert. Especially useful before exams or after a footy game.

The body and dry down of Eau de Sud are still salty/creamy all the way through but the whole fragrance dries out considerably and leaves a dustiness over the citrus and adds a walking over summers-browned-grass brittleness. So easy to wear and longevity of around 4 hours maximum, the first hour sillage is moderate before dropping back to soft.

My bottle is old, apparently Annick Goutal have remade Eau de Sud in 2016 and its note list is bergamot, mandarin orange, grapefruit and resins.

PDI

Further reading: EauMG and APJ
FragranceShop have the old men’s packaging Testers $44/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Are you an Eau de Sud fan?
Portia xx

Island Gardenia by Jovan 1982

December 28, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Anne-Marie

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year to all!

Big White Florals. Not my usual line of country, but with jasmine and gardenia blooming on my patio, I’m tempted to try them in perfumery. My latest exploration is Jovan’s Island Gardenia.

Island Gardenia by Jovan 1982

Fragrantica

Fragrantica only gives gardenia as a note, and the perfumer is unstated, but a Basenotes reviewer offers:
Top: coconut, peach
Heart: gardenia, tuberose, jasmine, neroli, cyclamen
Base: vanilla, civet, Siamese benzoin

I find mixed white florals heavily dominated by tuberose. That is what I get straight out of the bottle: a rich, buttery tuberose, luscious and unmistakeable. I agree on the peach but if you live in terror of the peach-tuberose combo in Givenchy Amarige, relax. The peach fades quickly.

The coconutty facet of many white florals is present, though not to my nose a major player. I don’t notice any of those listed base notes, certainly not civet.
The thing I really don’t get is gardenia. The gardenia I grow is a miniature and I think it is sweeter and less green and earthy than the classic, Billie Holiday-style gardenia. Still, I feel I know how they smell and I get very little gardenia in Island Gardenia. That’s a disappointment.

And then, I had been expecting monstrous flesh eating sillage so I was very surprised when IG shrank to my skin in less than half an hour. After a shower this afternoon I gave myself about five big spritzes (yes, I stayed home, just in case!). The sillage is moderate, but I don’t somehow expect it to last the whole evening.
The opening is my favourite part. Then, on some wearings the dry down seems a little harsh and chemically, but on others I found it pleasantly creamy and slightly salty. I prefer the sillage, especially as it wafts up from my shirt, to the scent on skin.

PDI

For all that, Island Gardenia is relaxing to wear. It is warm but only slightly sweet; maternal I would say, rather than sultry. Which brings us to – you know it’s coming – Piguet’s Fracas. Island Gardenia is sometimes likened to Fracas: lighter, more timid and much less complex. Well, I have never comprehended Fracas. I like the orange blossom in the opening, but as the tuberose emerges it turns weird and unpleasant on my skin. I do have a sample and I will keep comparing them, but if you know both fragrances well, do comment. And please, if you have compared it to Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché, I’d love to hear what you think!

On Fragrantica, you have to squint hard to find any really negative comment about Island Gardenia. I normally find that at least a quarter of the reviews of any given fragrance will condemn it, but ‘love the heck out of this’ is a pretty common reaction to this one.

PDI

FragranceNet has US$14/45ml before coupon

And the price! I gone mine for about AUD $21 on Fragrancex.com. No complaints there.
Ah gardenia! Do you have a favourite?
Bye for now.
Anne-Marie